AAI’s VP Alexander Tells WSJ Private Equity Firms Can Supercharge Competition Problems

In the September 30, 2021 Wall Street Journal article “Antitrust Regulators Fix Their Sights on Private Equity,” AAI Vice President of Policy Laura Alexander comments on federal agencies’ recent interest in the private equity industry’s effects on competition.

From the article:

The FTC has already begun looking at all mergers more thoroughly, vexing some private- equity buyers who had grown accustomed to an easier review process, say people who work with buyout firms.

To some, the attention is overdue. Antitrust authorities “are really beginning to appreciate the competition consequences of some of the private-equity tactics. Particularly in markets where there are existing competition problems, they supercharge
those problems,” said Laura Alexander, vice president of policy at the American Antitrust Institute.